Lux Aeterna
by TheIrishC
Summary: Arwen's unborn baby has a destiny bigger than that of its Father. How does Aragorn keep them safe...
1. Prologue

Lux Aeterna  
  
Prologue  
  
It was foretold that there would be born a child from an Elven Queen that would be the great hope of it's kingdom, that it would defeat an evil that would put Sauron and the battles for Middle Earth to shame.  
  
Like all prophecies, it was put into legends as it passed from one to another until the time that Arwen married her Elessar.  
  
The people of Gondor watched over their Evenstar with careful interest and hoped that she would be the one.  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
"Aye, I cannot take this anymore."  
  
Ravenne looked up from her handwork and saw Arwen looking distressed by the window, her eyes downcast to the people below.  
  
"Arwen?"  
  
She turned and shrugged. "Every day . mankoi?"  
  
The young Queen's lady in waiting and closest friend in court remained silent, knowing her friend well enough to understand that when she slipped into their mother tongue, it wasn't a good thing to interrupt.  
  
Sure enough, Arwen turned to face her friend.  
  
"They watch my every moment, my every appearance and I can't take it anymore!"  
  
In a fluid motion, she reached for her water goblet and flung it against the wall, crumbling to the ground in tears.  
  
With patience taught from years of being Arwen's playmate and then friend and now lady in waiting, Ravenne came to her aid.  
  
"Melyanna?"  
  
Arwen continued to cry. "I want what they want and to know that each time . mankoi?"  
  
Rubbing her back, Ravenne made soothing nonsensical sounds.  
  
"Have you told him of this?" Arwen sat up, shock clearly written on her face.  
  
"Arwen, tisn't fair for you to have this burden alone. It's no wonder there isn't a babe for your arms to hold. Lord Aragorn needs to know!"  
  
Taking a shuddering breath, Arwen dried her eyes. "Nay, he has too much to deal with in council. Taking care of a moody Queen is not part of his duties."  
  
She stood up and tried to put herself into some semblance of order as Ravenne watched her with a worried eye.  
  
"He loves you. Don't keep this from him."  
  
Arwen shook her head. "I'm going riding."  
  
Ravenne watched her go with a shake of her head. "Olinima . Arwen, lle olinima laito."  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
Aragorn sat quietly in the council, listening with increasing frustration at the amount of his councilors on this day that wanted nothing more than to hear themselves talk.  
  
This meeting should have ended an hour ago, an hour he could have been quietly with his wife, making plans for their trip to Ithilien.  
  
He had seen that Arwen had been increasingly quiet of late and with some astuteness, it must have had something to do with the adoration of their people towards their Queen.  
  
Arwen while her father's hostess for functions within the royal court of Rivendell was not used to this type of scrutiny, of people who knew of the maiden who gave up her world for the man she loved.  
  
After a just few months of marriage, a new strain began to tell on his wife and that was when would she give him and Gondor an heir.  
  
He could tell and knew his wife well enough to see this was bothering her, but every time, his stubborn wife would say nothing was wrong.  
  
Which was why he chose that time for a visit to Eowyn and Faramir.  
  
"Sire, is there any final words that you wish to tell the council?"  
  
Aragorn blinked and looked at the reports. "No, just that if there are any concerns I am just three days ride away."  
  
Getting up, he caught sight from the window of something flash quickly by outside in the rolling hills of the family's summer palace.  
  
Aragorn felt a pain in his heart in that Arwen could only find peace in riding with Asfaloth, instead of her coming to talk through this with him.  
  
He spoke softly to the air around him, so quietly as not to be heard by another soul.  
  
"What are you running from Melyanna?" 


	2. Chapter 1

Arwen laid forward, her cheek resting on Asfaloth's snowy mane, her mind on a conversation that she had had just a few short months before.  
  
"It's only fitting that as a wedding gift, I give you the one thing you continually took from me."  
  
A smile flitted across the face of Glorfindel. "Melyanna, I give to you my faithful companion. May Asfaloth be as loyal and strong to you and yours as he was for me."  
  
She ran a hand through the silken mane. "And you have been. Sometimes I find I can more easily speak of what troubles my heart to you than I can to human ears."  
  
"What if human ears are the ones who would best know how to fix what ails you?"  
  
She sat up with a start, turning slightly to see her husband appear out of the palace forest on foot, a look of amusement in his darkened eyes.  
  
"My love, you're a king ."  
  
He cut her off. "No, right now I am the husband of a troubled wife and as such, I've come to see what can be cured."  
  
As she watched silently, Aragorn came to them and paused to offer the horse a small piece of apple before turning his attention to his wife.  
  
"mankoi?"  
  
Arwen looked at her husband and despite loving him for thinking of using her native tongue, chose to speak in the common tongue and answered him with a question.  
  
"Why what?"  
  
Aragorn loved his wife beyond reason or description, but there were times like now when the thing he wanted best to do would be strangle her for her annoying ability to be very much her father's daughter and answer questions with questions.  
  
"Arwen, what troubles you is going to consume you if you don't speak of it. Why won't you let me help you?"  
  
She let out a sigh that made her body shake. "Because it's not your problem Estel, it's mine. I'm not a child any more and I can't have someone else fix this for me. I have to do this alone."  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
It was a silent somber couple that rode amongst their guards to Ithilien.  
  
Two days into the journey, Aragorn looked at his wife and saw her eyes closing as if in sleep.  
  
"Arwen?"  
  
His voice seemed to stabilize her, but soon the spell was broken and his wife began to weave unsteadily on her saddle.  
  
Concerned, he reined in his horse and came to his wife's aid just in time for her to buckle against him.  
  
Calling for a halt, Aragorn quickly shifted his wife to his horse making sure to cradle her carefully against himself as he had Asfaloth taken care of by a page.  
  
Planting a kiss against the top of her head, he wondered just what was going on with her.  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
"So, you sit and worry over the future Evenstar. there is really no need for the solution to the sickness of heart that you have is sleeping safely in your womb."  
  
The woman stared into the water and shook her head. "You've worried for the now with no mind of the future." She smiled. "The destiny you fought for Elessar is but a shadow of what awaits this child you both want so dearly."  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
"I don't understand this."  
  
Faramir looked up from the board and moved his piece. "Understand what?"  
  
Aragorn blinked. "How the hell did you just do that?"  
  
With a smile, the Steward of Gondor shrugged. "Blind luck?"  
  
"More like distractions making me blind."  
  
Faramir nodded. "The healers and Eowyn are with Arwen. We'll know what's wrong with your lady soon enough."  
  
Aragorn contemplated his next move. "I pray that it is not heartache that is taking her from me."  
  
"Heartache?"  
  
He nodded, getting up from the table. "The people of Gondor are a kind people. You of course know this as well as I. But their kindness has weighed heavily on Arwen and her spirit."  
  
Faramir grew concerned. "Weighed heavily?"  
  
Aragorn turned around. "Aye, they watch her every public move for signs of a child."  
  
He shook his head. "You've only been married mere months. What sort of miracle do they want?"  
  
"The miracle of knowing that the line continues?" Faramir grew serious; it was time that his friends knew of the myth.  
  
"That's not all the reason why they watch this particular Queen."  
  
Aragorn's eyebrow was raised in alarm at his friend's tone of voice, as even for serious Faramir it was one of total seriousness. "What do you know Faramir?" He came towards his friend. "What are the reasons?"  
  
Faramir slipped out of his chair and began to pace.  
  
"There is told a legend that a child born from an Elven Queen will have a destiny bigger than that of it's father." He turned to face Aragorn.  
  
"The people of Gondor have taken that myth and turned it to Prophecy. They watch her in the belief that she will bring the deliverer into the world. They watch her because of the fact that her future baby's father has done the things that his ancestor could not."  
  
Aragorn sank onto a couch. "I find myself suddenly hoping that Arwen isn't pregnant."  
  
Faramir was about to speak when the healer appeared in the open doorway.  
  
"Sire, the Queen wishes to see you." 


	3. Chapter 2

Aragorn rushed to their suite of rooms and found Arwen wrapped in a blanket seated near the window.  
  
She looked so serious that he chose to break the tension with a little humor.  
  
"What's this, an elf caught off her guard?"  
  
She turned, remembering the time she had said something similar to that and saw her husband standing there, arms crossed leaning against the doorway and smiled.  
  
"I have to apologize. I've been such a fool and I should have trusted you."  
  
He crossed the room in two strides and came to kneel in front of her.  
  
"Yes you should have." He reached out and tucked a stray hair behind her ear, his fingers pausing to trace the delicate curves of it.  
  
"Arwen, despite what you have said on occasion that I'm nearsighted on matters of importance, I do have eyes."  
  
He laid his hand on her cheek and his voice softened. "Lle tyava quel?  
  
She covered his hand with her own. "We're fine."  
  
For a man who prided himself on the quickness of his ranger skills, it took him a moment to catch his wife's choice of words.  
  
"We're?" He looked at her still flat stomach. "Who . when . how?"  
  
Arwen burst out into the sweetest laughter that Aragorn had ever heard.  
  
"manka amin." He waved a hand to cut her off and smiled as he caught himself stuttering. "A . lye laito.."  
  
She nodded. "Yes, our baby."  
  
Taking his hand in hers, she laid it on her stomach.  
  
"My tough warrior, you'll soon have another heart to have in your keeping."  
  
His voice was near to failing as he looked up at his wife.  
  
"Arwen?"  
  
She grinned. "I love you Estel."  
  
He leaned in and claimed her lips with his own. As he allowed himself to show in his kiss just how much he loved and cherished his wife, he remembered saying to her once that while they spoke easily in common, it was in elvish that he found it easier to express his heart, his emotions when it came to her.  
  
"Amin mela lle."  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
"Why not."  
  
Arwen and Eowyn looked at Aragorn as if he had grown two heads.  
  
"I'm serious. It would be nice for once to have the ability to walk through a crowd as a normal human instead of the King of Gondor."  
  
Faramir nodded, watching as Arwen went to the window to look out.  
  
"I think we can manage to have your guards dressed as civilians and to blend in with the crowds."  
  
Eowyn looked at her husband. "You're agreeing with him?"  
  
Faramir nodded. "Why does that surprise you love?"  
  
Arwen smiled. "Tis the time for surprises. Sometimes its best to just allow them to be."  
  
Aragorn nodded and gestured to his wife. "You shouldn't be near an open window. You'll catch your death of cold."  
  
"I'm pregnant not sick and you can't keep me in swaddling cotton Estel."  
  
Faramir's eyes widened, seeking Aragorn as Eowyn came to Arwen's side, clucking about all things maternal.  
  
Pulling him aside, Faramir spoke quietly. "What of what I told you?"  
  
Aragorn watched his wife. "We'll find more information on this prophecy, I won't have her happiness clouded by rumors or innuendo. For all we know, it could be myth and nothing more. Do you understand Faramir? I don't want Arwen knowing anything until I know something."  
  
The other man nodded and they went to join their wives.  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
"What if I hadn't been who I am?"  
  
Arwen paused, her dark hair tied back with a scarlet ribbon bounced merrily on her shoulders. "Then I wouldn't love you for I wouldn't have known you."  
  
Aragorn reached out and tweaked the fall of dark obsidian curls. "Somehow I think that not totally true, hearts know their mates, or so I once was told."  
  
Arwen turned and grinned. "Who told you that?"  
  
He drew her to him for a kiss that soon had her boneless in his arms. "My wife."  
  
She grinned. "I can't believe you remembered that." Aragorn smiled. "Of course I remember everything you have said or done. It helped to comfort me when we were apart."  
  
Arwen studied him with a smile. "The longer that I know you my Elessar, the more I realize that I truly don't and the surprises come more and more frequently."  
  
He smiled and let out a low chuckle. "Aye, I am your Elessar and your Estel so why not continue giving you surprises?"  
  
She shook her head. "You make me dizzy m'lord."  
  
He drew her closer, her head coming to rest on his shoulder. "As so it should be."  
  
Arwen turned her head slightly and saw a figure in white staring at them.  
  
"Gandalf?" 


	4. Chapter 3

Aragorn turned in time to see his wayward wife weaving her way through the crowds towards who she believed was their friend.  
  
He thought better of calling to her, avoiding the unwarranted attention that such a move would cause.  
  
But his smile soon appeared as he saw the Mitrandir hug Arwen.  
  
Coming towards them, he smiled and saw Arwen drop away from them as the old friends welcomed one another.  
  
"What brings you to these parts?"  
  
Arwen stood quietly at Aragorn's side and noticed that Gandalf studied her equally as intently as she did him.  
  
"I came to visit four of my favorite people and see how you were all doing."  
  
Aragorn nodded. "And you knew to come to Ithilien because?"  
  
Faramir appeared. "Because I sent for him."  
  
"You did?"  
  
He nodded to Aragorn. "Yes, once we learnt of the Queen's condition."  
  
Arwen threw up her hands. "Condition, Faramir?"  
  
The men chuckled as Arwen stormed away muttering about inconsiderate men who couldn't say expecting.  
  
Eowyn led them off in the opposite direction. "She'll be fine once she cools off."  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
Aragorn studied the older man closely. "You're not here for light hearted games, are you? You're here for something more."  
  
Gandalf looked back at Faramir and Eowyn who were studying some trinkets before walking them forward.  
  
"No, no I'm not. I'm here for something far more serious. Something of importance to you and the Evenstar."  
  
Aragorn blinked. They hadn't told anyone outside of Faramir and Eowyn.  
  
Gandalf saw the flash in the younger man's eyes and nodded. "Yes, I come now at a time of joy to warn you of danger. Arwen and the life of your unborn heir are in grave danger."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
Before they could continue the discussion, they heard screams. They came rushing to the screams and found Arwen sitting dazed on a log while the guards ran off.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
She shook her head. "I'm fine, I don't see what the fuss was about. The guards are being way overprotective and I just want to go home."  
  
Aragorn looked to the head of the legion of guards who spoke.  
  
"Her Majesty was with the children when a knife was thrown."  
  
She looked up. "I subdued the man and I don't have a scratch and I would feel much safer at the Palace."  
  
Aragorn leaned forward and stood his wife on her feet.  
  
"I agree, I think you should be home where you can be examined by a healer." He turned and called to Ravenne.  
  
"Go ahead and called for Nerwen, she traveled with us and Arwen trusts her."  
  
Eowyn was about to protest but the look from Aragorn silenced any doubts.  
  
"Arwen needs to be around people she knows and feels safe with. That includes the family's healer. Nerwen is Arwen's lady in waiting's sister."  
  
Aragorn was about to continue when he saw something on the ground and paused.  
  
Handing Arwen for a moment to Gandalf, he reached for it and paused.  
  
"M'lord?"  
  
"Do you have a piece of cloth?" The leader of the palace guards nodded and handed it to him.  
  
Arwen lifted her head from the wizard's shoulder and found it hard to stay awake. It was just that she was feeling so heavy.  
  
"What is it Aragorn?"  
  
He quickly gathered the knife and folded the cloth protectively over it. "Nothing Arwen, let's get you safely back in the Palace."  
  
Taking her from the wizard, he noticed how unresponsive she was as he scooped her up in his arms.  
  
"Evenstar?"  
  
Her head slumped against his and he let out a cry of warning to any one who was in his path that they were going to be crushed.  
  
*~*~*~* Aragorn paced as he watched the door for the second time in as many days.  
  
"She will be alright, you know this."  
  
He looked to Eowyn. "No, no I don't know this. Arwen gave up her immortality for me, the knife was poisoned."  
  
Faramir spoke from the desk. "We don't know there's a correlation."  
  
Aragorn slumped into a chair. "We don't know there's not."  
  
He lunged out of the chair and came to his cloak, removing the packet that contained the knife.  
  
"It's been laced with a toxin I've seen only once before."  
  
Before Faramir and Eowyn could hear more, there was a soft knock at the door to the library.  
  
Gandalf appeared as Eowyn opened the door.  
  
"Aragorn, it's time we spoke of this. You need to be prepared."  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
She felt as if her body was on fire, but yet nothing could soothe her, which worried the healers who were by her side.  
  
A lone tear trickled down her cheek as she softly whimpered a name. "M'lady?"  
  
Arwen rolled away, again calling for the thing that could calm her best..  
  
Estel.  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
"What are you saying Gandalf. That I could lose them both and if by some lucky chance, they both survive, I could lose the child once it's grown?"  
  
He nodded. "Yes Aragorn. The child is destined for greater things that the feats that you have accomplished. There are forces that have decided that there are ways to ensure the child never reaches breath."  
  
"I came as soon as I saw the signs indicating that the prophecy was leading to Arwen."  
  
Aragorn began to pace the length of the room. "Arwen should never have been put into this situation. Arwen should have gone to Valinor. At least there, she would have been safe."  
  
He stopped pacing and looked to the door. "Why haven't we heard from Nerwen?"  
  
*~*~*~* Eowyn was sent to check on the sleeping Queen while Gandalf, Faramir and Aragorn discussed ways to keep Arwen safe for the next few months of her condition.  
  
She crept to the door and found Nerwen bathing the forehead of Arwen, who was feverishly calling for Estel.  
  
Nerwen looked up and froze. "M'lady?"  
  
Eowyn smiled. "It's alright. His Majesty sent for me to check in on her to see how she was. Is there any news that I can report back?"  
  
Nerwen nodded. "You can tell him that she calls for him and I think that while there was just a scratch on her hand, it twas enough to allow enough poison in to cause a fever. Fates allow and gods willing she may yet cause this fever to break."  
  
"She calls for him?"  
  
Nerwen crooned gently to the Queen, who seemed to settle. "Aye, Estel is her family's name for the King."  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
Arwen woke up a few hours later and found Nerwen sitting fast asleep in the chair beside her bed.  
  
Disoriented, she carefully slipped from the bed and paused only to lay a blanket over her caregiver before gathering a robe of her own and went to find Aragorn.  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
"Gandalf, is this the right thing to do?"  
  
"Your majesty, this is the only thing to do. The fellowship was called for the destruction of the ring, how fitting that they come back to preserve the precious gift of the life of your heir and your Queen."  
  
Arwen stood quiet near the door as they spoke.  
  
"Where is the justice for a life yet unborn, where is the justice for a life long fought for Gandalf? The child's mother fought for our life together, how did it come to this that I could lose them both now and if they somehow survive this, then we could lose this babe as it grows?"  
  
Arwen felt a fist in the pit of her stomach.  
  
"Arwen should know of this Gandalf, she should know of the plans for their safety."  
  
She didn't chose to wait for further word; she turned and ran from the hall.  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
She moved quickly and stealthily through the stable, moving towards Asfaloth with the saddle. "I cant stay here, I WONT stay here."  
  
She was gone before the stable keeper was even aware of anything being dislodged.  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
"You didn"t see anything?"  
  
Nerwen looked close to tears. "I checked on her, she was sleeping soundly m'lord and it appeared that the fever had broken. I must have felt that it was safe to rest my eyes for a moment."  
  
Eowyn calmed the healer. "Aragorn, she couldn't have gotten far. We have people searching the grounds."  
  
Gandalf also joined in calming the frantic King. "The call for the fellowship has been put out. They'll be coming soon."  
  
"What good will it do if they cant be found?"  
  
Faramir returned. "Asfaloth is missing."  
  
Aragorn closed his eyes. "What is going on?"  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
Legolas woke with a jolt, his senses seemingly screaming on full alert.  
  
His breath slowly calmed down and he realized that he called a name.  
  
"Evenstar." 


End file.
